Baller League: A ‘new sport’ with ‘room for improvement’ – how is it going?

East London hosted two very different versions of the ‘Beautiful Game’ on Sunday.

A stone’s throw from the London Stadium, where 58,669 fans turned out to watch West Ham beat QPR in the FA Cup, around 4,000 fans watched nearly five hours of football as the second season of the Baller League UK concluded.

Wembley Rangers – managed by former England strikers Ian Wright and Alan Shearer – won the title by defeating defending champions SDS in the final on Sunday.

Baller League chief executive Felix Starck believes his six-a-side competition has gone beyond what the Premier League can offer the younger generation.

He claims the top tier is “not even close” to the age group behind the Baller League.

“In the younger audience, we lead in that market share – between 16 and 28, we have a bigger following than the Premier League when it comes to live matches,” he says.

Figures are difficult to verify – but it’s worth noting that Baller League matches are more accessible than Premier League matches which are only shown on subscription channels.

Baller League is broadcast simultaneously across Sky, Twitch and YouTube, and the league says it had more than two million live viewers on each matchday in the first season.

Figures for its second season in the UK have not yet been released, but only one out of 11 matches achieved a million views on YouTube – compared to eight matchdays in the first season.

Premier League matches shown on Sky Sports attracted an average audience of around 1.57 million per match during the 2024-25 season, down 10% on the previous season.

Baller League relies on former Premier League players, content creators and celebrities to attract fans, and those running teams include Wright, Shearer, England’s European Championship winner Chloe Kelly and actor Idris Elba.

“We need to educate our fans well enough to say: ‘It’s a new sport, come along for the ride,'” Stark says.